Maturation
by WatchMeSoar
Summary: Set the night that Riley came back home and Joy and Sadness found their way back to Headquarters. The five Emotions have a few things to talk about in that wake of everything, and as the dust settles, they realize that the air still has to be cleared between them. Rated due to deep self-esteem issues among emotions and general angst.
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own this movie or its brilliant characters.**

Riley and her parents stayed up late together that night. They spent time talking about everything, and for much of the time Sadness was driving— _all three_ of them—but at the end of the night, Riley found herself going to bed happier than she had been in a long while. Tomorrow was a Saturday, and her father had promised to spend the day with her and Mom. She was, for the first time since the move, content.

III

"Aaand…we're out," Joy sighed from the console. And for a moment she just stood there, breathing, trying to sort through her thoughts. They all were. Silence reigned for a solid few minutes, no one daring to even move for fear of shattering it. Then, Sadness looked up from her hands, and looked up at Joy. With the eye contact came a smile.

"Yesterday was supposed to be my turn for Dream Duty," Sadness finally said, addressing all of them. "Who took it?"

Fear raised his hand weakly. He still had not looked up from his own wringing hands.

"I can take tonight instead," she offered, but Anger quickly cut her off.

"No, kid," he said in a surprisingly subdued tone, "It's my turn, I'll do it. Besides, you're probably exhausted from what you had to go through."

Joy chuckled a little. "Well, I doubt it was much fun for you three up here, right?" She meant for it to lighten the mood, but her comment only seemed to cause the three emotions that had stayed behind to drop their shoulders and bring the silence back. Joy's small grin faltered. "Guys?"

Disgust looked like she was going to excuse herself to bed at any second, and Fear looked as though he just wanted the ground to swallow him whole. Anger was stoic.

Before Joy could say anything else, Anger spoke up. He was quiet, and his demeanor was altogether unsettling for the others, who were so used to his booming voice and personality. But now he barely moved, barely made a sound.

"I'm sorry. To all of you. I am so sorry."

Joy started. "Wha—sorry? What do you mean? What would you—"

"Joy…" It was Sadness that stopped Joy from her confused rant, and when she had the other's attention Sadness motioned over to the other three, none of whom looked particularly comfortable, or surprised in the least by Anger's apology. In fact, they all looked as though it was meant to be from all of them.

"…Guys? What's the matter?"

"What's the matter," Anger scoffed, self-depricavingly, "what's the matter, she asks." He was talking to himself. Then, louder: "We messed up. I messed up."

"Don't flatter yourself," Disgust's voice was at once harsher and more subdued than usual, "the credit for this epic failure goes to all three of us."

Anger looked up at her, and her eyes finally fell into focus. He said, "The two of us," then turned to the yellow and blue emotions. "To be fair, Fear was against the idea."

"Yeah, I guess," Disgust agreed, readily, much to almost everyone's surprise. "He really didn't have anything to do with the whole…running away thing."

"Yes I did."

Fear's sudden interjection into the conversation startled everyone, though his voice was more hushed than anyone else's had been. "I… _I_ tried to run. Remember?"

Sadness and Joy were confused, to say the least. Sadness was the one to ask what he was talking about. Disgust and Anger were silent, and somehow, uncomfortable.

Fear took a shuddering breath, his eyes glassy and focused on the floor in front of him. "I, uh…I wanted to run. To quit. I thought that, if the two of you could leave then…then I could too. I-it didn't work, and things just kind of moved on, but I still…I-I—"

Before he could break down completely, Joy cut him off. "Woah, hey, hey hey! It's okay! It's—"

" _No!_ No, it's _not_ okay!" No one was prepared for his outburst, not even Fear himself. He gestured wildly with his arms, and his hands were curled into claws. "We _ruined_ her! The three of us, without either of you, we broke her! We watched her fall apart and we couldn't to a _thing_ about it! **_Look at what we did to her!"_**

His harsh voice carried thought Headquarters, and echoed slightly back to them. His brows were furrowed, his teeth bared into a hateful snarl, and his eyes piercing; they would all agree that, at that moment, Fear was _scary_.

Ignoring how that all flinched back, he continued. "We couldn't even do our _own_ jobs right, let alone either of yours. Anger failed to find any _one_ thing to be angry at, and so Riley was just plain angry; Disgust did _nothing_ but just make it harder for Riley to find friends or have fun, everything was just so _distasteful_ to her—" Disgust visibly flinched at his words, her eyes becoming more glassy and her pout more prominent; Fear paid no mind. "—and I—ha, well, does it _look_ like I kept her safe to you!? _We failed her!"_ The quiet following his rave was deafening, and when Fear finally spoke again, the regret in his tone bled into each one of them. "We failed her."

No one spoke. What did one say to that?

Sadness was, again, the one to break the silence. "Maybe…" she said gently, testing the waters, "maybe we should all stay up tonight. It, um…it looks like we all have some things to talk about."

Joy agreed, but said nothing. She simply looked from Sadness to their three friends, who all looked so broken and guilty and _wrong_ , waiting for them to respond.

"Yeah," It was Anger who finally answered for the three of them. "I think…I think that would be a good idea."

 **A/n: Everyone ready for dramatized, heartfelt angst? Yes? Good. Because I'm in a _mood_.**


	2. Chapter 2

They had gone upstairs to get ready for bed, dressing in their respective sleeping clothes, although none of them anticipated getting any actual rest that night. They had been dragging their feet, but eventually they all made it back downstairs.

Now, they all sat in a bit of a circle, with Sadness, Disgust, and Fear sitting on the couch and Joy and Anger sitting in a nest of blankets and pillows on the floor in front. It had been a few minutes since they made it to this spot, and no one had yet opened up the floodgates.

Suddenly, Joy took a vitalizing breath and slapped on a hopeful smile, and decided to begin. "So, how do we want to do this? Should we take turns, or what?"

"Take turns doing _what?_ " That was Disgust. "Sharing our feelings? Baring our souls? Singing Kumbaya? What are we—"

"Disgust," Anger's voice was still, oddly, the most calming sound in the room. "Please."

She stopped talking, looking _sorry_ , rather than annoyed.

Joy, somewhat unnerved, turned to the only one there she thought could do any good at the moment, "Sadness? Could you…"

Sadness looked at Joy, still surprised at being called out to, but it warmed her, in a way. And she knew that Joy was right to, in this instance. Beneath it all, the anger and the annoyance and the fear, she could tell that her friends were simply sad. That, she knew, was something she could help with.

"That was a good idea, Joy," she said sweetly, "To, um, to take turns. I think we're all bothered by different things, and we all have different things to say. We can just…talk. and the rest of us will listen."

Joy understood, and was happy with the idea. The others were dubious, having witnessed very little of what Sadness could do, but enough to not question her.

Sadness could tell that the three were still hesitant to talk, so she decided to open things up. "I can go first, if no one else wants to. Then Joy, if you wouldn't mind..?" Joy was surprised, but nodded.

"O-okay, um," Sadness began, "well, it isn't really news to anybody that I felt a little bit, uh, _under appreciated_ , and I was starting to think that I didn't matter to Riley, to any of you…" Each of the others looked decidedly uncomfortable at this; Joy might have been something of a driving force behind her alienation, but none of them did anything to help the blue emotion. "And that's getting better, now, but, I don't know…I think it will take some time for me to feel okay with everything." Her eyes had long since gathered tears, but only now did they begin to fall. "I-I don't want to be a burden to anyone. And I don't think that I believe that I am, anymore, but…I don't know. It j-just makes me so…s-sad…"

Joy could stand it no more at this point and crawled over to the couch to take her hand. "I am so, _so_ sorry, Sadness. That was all my fault. If i hadn't been such a—"

"No, it's okay Joy," She managed through her tears. It was a heartbreakingly beautiful sight to see the embodiment of sorrow reach out to another, as if by helping others she herself felt better. And maybe she did. "It's okay, really. You didn't know any better. I didn't either; n-none of us did."

It seemed as though Anger was perhaps among the most willing to do this, surprisingly, as he was the next to chime in, "We should have. That's on us kiddo, you didn't do anything wrong. None of us gave you a chance."

Sadness looked to Anger in surprise, not because of his words, but because of the tone with which he spoke them. He sounded… _fatherly._ Caring. She found it comforting.

"Yeah, Sadness," Disgust, while not exactly _motherly_ , was genuine, and Sadness was happy to take that as it was. "We were totally unfair to you. Can you—do you really think you can forgive us?"

The four of them looked to her with hope and sorrow, and she was almost overwhelmed enough to begin crying again in earnest. But instead she smiled, and said:

"Of course. You're my family."

Her easy forgiveness was not unexpected, but the magnitude was enough to bring tears to everyone's eyes, though they tried their hardest to blink them back—if they all broke down now, they'd never get through the night.

Joy remembered then that it was her turn, technically, and so with a look at Sadness to make sure she was finished, she began. "Um, well, I guess I'll go ahead now." The others looked to her expectantly, wondering what their ever-bubbly leader might have to be upset about. "I actually wanted to start by saying that I love all of you. Like Sadness said, we're family and I care for you all no matter what. I want us all to be able to work well together. But I'm afraid…" Her voice faltered, and her friends began to worry slightly that they had missed something important. " I' m afraid that I've been putting you all down. Pushing you aside. I know I did it to Sadness—no, don't try to deny it—but I'm beginning to think that, maybe, I've been shutting you all out, too." She had on the smile of one who had smiled for too long, and her eyes were bright and beautiful, but so very glassy. "We're all important, and even though I thought that I understood the three of you better than I did Sadness, I still didn't do a very good job of letting you all do your jobs. I thought that I was helping Riley through all these years, but I think, maybe, I've been the one hurting her all this time…"

As her voice rose in pitch and lowered in volume, she brought her hands to cover her quivering lips, and closed her eyes, afraid of the looks she's receive from the others. She opened her eyes when she felt gentle hands on either of her shoulders, and found a soft blue hand and a firm red one, along with four pairs of understanding eyes.

"Joy, it's not like we _want_ her to be miserable all the time," It was Disgust who began now, more confident than she had been earlier. "Yeah, so we're all important in specific situations, but we all want her to be happy, too."

Fear spoke now, controlled as he could be, "I think, sometimes, that our entire point of being here is to clear a path for _you_. We make sure that Riley's safe and taken care of so that she has the luxury to feel _joy._ "

"Couldn't have said it better," Anger said, paying no mind to the raised eyebrow that earned him. "Team Happy is still in business."

The others concurred with a chorus of _'Team Happy'_ s and Joy felt her smile lift enough to be genuine.

"Y-you guys are the best," She sniffed. "I-I will try to be better, though. I do think I need to be more understanding of your purposes. Will…will you all promise to tell me when I'm being too overbearing? Please?"

The others were surprised, but soon enough shared a glance of understanding. Anger answered her for all of them. "Sure, of course. For the sake of balancing this all out, of course."

Joy's smile brightened, and she took the moment to simply enjoy the company of her close friends. Sadness, though, gently reminded them all of their current mission.

"Do you think, now…maybe, you guys are ready to talk about what's been bothering you?"

Anger, Fear, and Disgust were quick to wipe the small smiles from their faces, but they all know that this was right. Joy and Sadness had a right to know what happened, at the very least.

The three shared anxious, saddened glances, and Anger sighed, "Yeah. Okay. We're ready."

 **A/n: I am so sorry this update took so long. I had surgery (nothing serious) and was down for the count longer than I expected to be. And then I got** **distracted. (If curious, see my story _Always_ ). Thanks for the support!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/n: I AM SORRY that this took so long.**

They were so far from ready.

Even after Anger's brave affirmation that _yes, they would do this, for all their sakes,_ no one was willing at first to jump in and start. The three squirmed and winced, and Joy and Sadness could do little more than try to hide their own discomfort as much as possible.

Eventually Anger grew tired of all this beating around the bush. "Ahem…" he cleared his voice gruffly, and all eyes turned to him. As determined as he was to hide his unease as much as possible, it was glaringly obvious to the others that he really, _really_ didn't want to do this. They graciously didn't show it.

"I…" Anger, for all his… _expansive_ vocabulary, wasn't exactly known for being eloquent. He decided that the best way to go about this was to do it the way he did everything else: bluntly, and head-on.

"I feel like a right bastard." Ignoring the gasps from one or two of his colleagues he continued on. "It was my idea to make Riley do what she did. I jumped right into the most extreme solution like an _idiot_ , because I was—I…"

He _wasn't_ about to cry. He _wasn't_.

"Because I was just so… _angry_." He had never hated who he was until that very moment, admitting to the others and to himself just how much his being, his very existence, could hurt their girl. He balled his fists and bit his cheek, glaring at the wall in order to keep his feelings at bay.

The other four looked on in quiet shock, surprised to see the most stalwart of them be reduced to a shaking heap of a person, needing help and hating the fact that he did all at once.

Anger assumed that the silence meant that the others wanted to hear more from him. That was fine; he supposed he had more to say, anyway. He turned vaguely to Fear and Disgust. "I, uh…" _this_ was gonna hurt, "I wasn't _fair_ to you two. I didn't give you any say in the matter."

"Now, hold on a minute," Disgust's voice, at least, seemed slightly back to normal. She didn't want to do his either, but for Anger to take all the blame was ridiculous. "You didn't do anything until there was a majority vote, and I gave you that." she glanced around at her coworkers quickly, her gaze lingering on Fear a moment longer to make sure he felt the same; without verbal cue, he agreed, and Disgust went on, " You asked what we thought, and I said we should do it. You were fair. It was _dumb_ , but it was fair."

Anger searched her for a moment before deciding he trusted her sincerity. He seemed to relax into his own frame, some of the tension leaving him. So Disgust and Fear didn't blame him. That was good. But he couldn't be sure about Joy and Sadness. If either of them had been there, they would've shut the idea down in a _second_. He could only hope for the best. But for now, this was enough.

Disgust, for her part, assumed it was her turn now that she'd cut in. Trying her best to remain as detached as possible for the time being, she laid it all out in one go.

"…Well, I guess what Fear said was true. About me not doing anything—no, it _was_ , don't even try—and I guess…I don't know. I guess I had never realized how—" _Detached, detached!_ … "How _unnecessary_ I was until this whole thing. I don't really…there was nothing I could do but make her feel worse, and set up red flags in Mom and Dad's mind, and…I didn't even, like, do my regular job. Riley didn't care about her appearance or making friends…and the worst part is that it didn't matter. I didn't matter, and my _neglect_ didn't matter. So…what good am I?"

Fear was horrified. "D-Disgust…that's not what I—"

She would have none of it. She turned quickly to him and spoke quietly enough to make him listen. "Yes it was. You're lying to both of us if you tell me that's not what you were thinking when you said it."

He could say nothing to that.

Joy took up the conversation before _that_ got any worse. "But Disgust, Riley loves you!" She threw her hands out in front of her in wild gestures, as if it would make her point clearer. "Doesn't she just _love_ shopping, and finding cool friends, and finding the kind of deodorant that makes her _not_ super gross after a game!?"

"You're one of the most noticeable emotions in Riley," Sadness said, "Next to Joy, I'd say you make up the better part of who she is to the people around her. I'd say that's pretty important."

Disgust heard an approving grunt from Anger, and could see Fears gaze imploring her to believe what their friends were saying. She was, frankly, amazed with all of their support. She had never felt quite so content.

"I…th-thanks, you guys." Playing off her uncharacteristic stutter, she smiled warmly at them all.

They sad in companionable silence for a few short moments, until Joy noticed that Fear had gone back to staring at his hands. "Um, Fear?" She began, drawing the attention of the others, "…you don't have to do this now, if you don't feel—"

"I'm fine."

Joy was startled, as were the others; Fear wasn't one to just cut someone off like that. But they said nothing. If he wanted to talk, they'd let him do so with the least amount of rebuttal as possible.

Fear fought with his very being in order to gather the courage to speak. He wanted to clam up, to run away. It was his nature to remove himself from the problem at hand, to…to take the cowards way out.

Well, that point just proved itself, didn't it?

Steeling himself as well as he could, he straightened his shoulders somewhat (still looking down) and did everything in his power to keep his voice level.

"I…I failed." Nothing for a few moments, but the others dared not to distract him from his thoughts.

"I f-failed Riley more than I had ever thought possible. I—it's my job, my _duty_ , to be there for her, to get her out of trouble, and keep her out. This was her hour of need, the most compromising position she's ever b-been in, and I—"

His voice failed him then, his efforts to remain stoic, in the end, futile. His shoulders drooped low and he hid his face in his hands.

Sadness, on the opposite end of the couch than him, hopped off and made her way to the other side. When she placed a hand on his arm she felt the shivers running through him.

He didn't acknowledge her.

Finally, after a few tense minutes, he lowered his hands, though his eyes remained closed and his body in the same position. "Please," he gave a quivering whisper, "p-please, forgive me. I-I didn't mean to be so selfish…I never m-meant to be such a _coward_. I'll be better, I promise. _Please…_ "

The other four had heard enough. All at once Fear found himself the center of a group hug, wrapped tight in Joys zealous arms, Sadness' cheek leaning against his shoulder, a hand from Disgust and Anger each at his back. He knew then, without a doubt, that he was forgiven. And he let it all go.

They all did.

The friends remained in the embrace for a long while—how long, none could say. It was healing, comforting in a way that no hugs prior had never been. Each emotion knew that it was far from over. It would take a while for Riley to heal, inside and out. There would be moments of malice, of guilt, and this incident would never be gone from their memory. But for _right then_ , in that instant, everything was perfect.

When they all finally pulled away, each hosted a smile on their tearstained face.

No words were spoken at the beginning. They simply enjoyed being together, without fear of ridicule or hatred; each having had their self-imposed burden eased. Joy looked to each one of her friends, and then nodded resolutely.

"You know what?" She said, "I think we're gonna be okay."

 **A/n: Alrighty, that wasn't even a long chapter and it still took the longest. This will be the last chapter of this fic, sadly. I hoped you liked it!**

 **The only things I own are the** **typos.**

 **I'm back at school, guys, so I will most likely update my stories less often. Not much to be done about that.**

 **That being said...Keep you eye out for an Inside Out horror fic from me:) Yeah, like, a story with an** **actually plot line other than fluff and good feelings. I've started writing it, but I'm not posting anything until October for two reasons. One: duh, October. Two: I want to have a fair amount written so I can get it all posted by Halloween and so you all don't have to wait too long between updates. So, that's happening!**

 **Why am I telling you this? Because I want you to do me a solid; I want you to, in the comments or through PM (if you've got a long story), tell me about a monster/spook/terrible beastie that gave you nightmares as a kid, or just one you've seen in movies or read about that creeped you out more than the others. I can't promise it will be reflected exactly in the story, but it'll help. I'm trying to hone in to true horror. We're diving into the Subconscious here, guys-so what haunts you?**


End file.
